Important for the political and literary history of the Middle Ages, Anselm served St. Norbert of Xanten, advised three German rulers, acted as a papal legate, and held the offices of bishop of Havelberg and archbishop of Ravenna. He is most famous for his written account of theological debates he held with a Greek archbishop and for his History of the Faithful. Lees's book is the first comprehensive study of Anselm's life and writings, drawing the two together in a new interpretation of the History, the Debates, and Anselm's blistering attack on the monastic life, as well. It will be of great value to those interested in medieval political, intellectual or church history, as well as those interested in the literature of the twelfth century.

A Historical Examination of Christian Theology through a Trinitarian Framework Theology is important. But so is the story behind the specific doctrines that have been debated, defined, and refined throughout church history. In this book, professor Gerald Bray introduces readers to the history of Christian theology, the Trinity (our doctrine of God), and the Bible (our knowledge of God). Unlike other books on the topic, Bray's volume is not organized primarily by time period or distinct doctrinal categories. Rather, it puts theology first and history second, following a Trinitarian pattern that begins with God the Father, moves on to God the Son, and ends with God the Holy Spirit. This unique approach offers readers a more holistic understanding of the development of theology, paralleling the order in which the church wrestled through challenging theological issues and controversies related to God, man, and salvation. Accessible: Aimed at non-specialists, not just the academic community Unique Organization: Uses a Trinitarian framework to provide a more holistic understanding of the development of theology Historical: Explores the Jewish background behind the development of Christian theology Written by Gerald Bray: An internationally renowned historian and theologian Replaces ISBN 978-1-4335-2694-7

The Anticimenon of Anselm of Havelberg is both the outstanding medieval work on ecumenical dialogue with the Orthodox and one of the period's most important explorations of the theology of history. This text's author was a bishop on Christianity's eastern frontier and companion to Norbert of Xanten, saint-founder of the Order of Pramontra. Anselm grounded both his zeal for the union of the churches and his Vision of the Holy Spirit's role in secular events in the renewal and purification advocated by the twelfth-century reformation. The present volume, the first English translation of Anselm's Anticimenon, sets his work in the context of the early Premonstratensian (Norbertine) thought integral to the reform movement of his time. It renders Anselm's powerful voice audible to a modern English-speaking readership yearning, with him, for unity in the Church and understanding of the Holy Spirit's agency in human experience. Ambrose Criste, OPraem, received his licentiate from the Gregorian University in Rome and is a member of St. Michal's Abbey in Orange County, California. Carol Neel is professor of history at Colorado College and has published several translations and commentaries on medieval spiritual texts.

Brett Whalen explores the compelling belief that Christendom would spread to every corner of the earth before the end of time. During the High Middle Ages—an era of crusade, mission, and European expansion—the Western followers of Rome imagined the future conversion of Jews, Muslims, pagans, and Eastern Christians into one fold of God’s people, assembled under the authority of the Roman Church. Starting with the eleventh-century papal reform, Whalen shows how theological readings of history, prophecies, and apocalyptic scenarios enabled medieval churchmen to project the authority of Rome over the world. Looking to Byzantium, the Islamic world, and beyond, Western Christians claimed their special place in the divine plan for salvation, whether they were battling for Jerusalem or preaching to unbelievers. For those who knew how to read the signs, history pointed toward the triumph and spread of Roman Christianity. Yet this dream of Christendom raised troublesome questions about the problem of sin within the body of the faithful. By the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, radical apocalyptic thinkers numbered among the papacy’s most outspoken critics, who associated present-day ecclesiastical institutions with the evil of Antichrist—a subversive reading of the future. For such critics, the conversion of the world would happen only after the purgation of the Roman Church and a time of suffering for the true followers of God. This engaging and beautifully written book offers an important window onto Western religious views in the past that continue to haunt modern times.

Having met with resistance in his attempts to reform the clergy in his native Xanten, Norbert (ca. 1080-1134) founded a religious community in France. His establishment was the first house of an eventually hugely successful order, the Canons Regular of Premontre, also known as the Premonstratensians or Norbertines. Although Norbert, who was appointed archbishop of Magdeburg in 1126, left no writings, his followers produced many important texts in their efforts to reform a lax and demoralized clergy. Yet, despite these authors' significance to the spirituality of their age, their words and their historical context are little-known to modern readers. This volume renders audible the voices of the twelfth-century followers of Norbert, presenting the most important early Premonstratensian texts (including two versions of the Vita Norberti), along with an introductory essay describing their place in twelfth-century religious life. Book jacket.

Filling today's religious book market are Apocalypse commentaries teaching that the seven seals of Revelation 5-8 describe tragedies that are to take place in the last days. Medieval Europeans, on the other hand, thought very differently about the seven seals. Some used the seven seals for catechetical purposes and associated them with seven major events in the life of Christ or seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Other medieval writers taught that the seven seals contained symbols about life in the church between the first and second comings of Christ. Still others viewed the seals as milestones in the grand outline of salvation history. This book illustrates this vastness of medieval interpretive tradition on the seven seals. It includes fifteen texts from the sixth through the fifteenth centuries, which have been organized under three headings: those illustrating christological interpretations of the seven seals, those proposing ecclesiastical interpretations, and those giving historical interpretations.

Volume III examines the history of theology and the basic innovations in theological thought during the Renaissance era. It explores the councils, people, movements, pedagogy, and theological methods of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.